Talk:...Baby One More Crime/@comment-3041875-20170608004118
The Good – Let's just get to the biggest part of this episode – the handling of Brad's death. I'll admit, in the first scene of act one, when Ben wondered if Josh ever leaves Brad's apartment, I had a thought that Brad was dead and that Josh might be living in denial over it, but the whole paralysis story did a very convincing job of making it seem he was alive, so I was sold by it. At first, I was satisfied with the paralysis reveal. Honestly, I didn’t expect Brad to die after the season two finale, but if he had survived unscathed then that would have been too inconsequential, so surviving but without the ability to walk again was a strong result from a storytelling perspective, and had me content with where things were going during the episode. Throughout the episode, I was curious to see how it would influence their relationship. While Brad seemed to be dealing with it via humour, it was clear he had feelings of inadequacy, and Josh's overprotection of him was going to cause some issues (I liked the walkabout reference, by the way). All of this, of course, made the twist that Brad was actually dead even more brilliant, as it had me thinking of how their relationship might develop over the course of the season, but alas there will be no development of any kind to come. Really, guys, you handled this twist and reveal brilliantly, so congrats! Excellent moment. The twist in the teaser that Joe had been kidnapped on his was wedding was also a strong one. The build-up to the wedding, with Joe calling his mom was nice, and I liked Joanna's visions of Nadia. That's a story I'm very interested by, and I'm glad she came clean to Joe over everything. The flashback, reminding us of her friendship with Nadia, was a nice scene at the opera, and her realisation that she wants a baby is an interesting one. The ending of the episode sets up a nice mystery of why Rochelle kidnapped Joe and what the consequences of him killing her will be. I'm of course interested to see how Silvia's connected, what her plan is and find out a little more about her relationship with her new husband, and former doctor, which seems interesting. I loved that first scene of act one, by the way, with Joe proposing, a very nice scene. Joanna's interaction with Ben and Rena was excellent, with a really solid flow of dialogue, and good characterisation of Rena as not being used to letting other people have the attention. I also really enjoyed the scene of Silvia claiming Selena's old home, with Juanita Kwon, my favourite servant, making an appearance, who's apparently really bad at spoiling, and there was also a desperate housewife's reference. Rena being happy to stay as her new butler, enjoying the iced tea, while Joe was freaking out, was pretty funny, as was James thinking he was invited, only to be pushed down by Aliza. Rena writing his own screenplay for Mary is a story that interests me, as I feel it may actually lead to his big break. I've always most enjoyed Rena's stories when they focused on his main motivation of becoming a star, so this a good thing for me, and I enjoyed Rena's character all throughout the episode, not just within his own story. I'm still not entirely sold on his relationship with Mary, but I'll give it a while longer before making judgment; I'd just like to see some deeper emotions there. I felt bad for Ben during the courtroom scene, and some of the dialogue between him and Val was pretty strong. Ali and Ben's interaction was also a positive aspect of the story, with her being a good friend by comforting him, and I hope this marks their friendship returning to what it was like during the first season, and that Ali will continue to show more of the empathetic and gentle side to her we saw then and in 201. Mixed Observations – I mostly enjoyed these scenes so I'm not going to put them in "The Bad". The scene between Liz and Kathryn was fine, but I'd have expected wittier comments from Kathryn. She seemed outdone by Liz a little too easily. I found it hard to believe, even with the reasons given, that the judge would grant Val such a harsh custody agreement – one weekend a month is quite extreme; criminals get better visitations than that; Ben's a butler, living in someone else's home, but so long as the homeowner's okay with, then it's no real problem. The judge should have been able to tell from their words during the hearing who the better parent would be, considering just how toxic Val sounded. I always kind of want Ben to just explain to Val what happened, and make her see he didn’t murder her sister, and that he actually loved her, but I don’t think Val would really be very sympathetic or that'd she end up blaming him any less. I'll admit, the reveal that Ali's letters were sent by her father did nothing for me. I don’t think mysteries work when we have nothing to go on, so I wasn’t exactly intrigued by it at the end of last season. The reveal that they're from her father isn't a bad one, but I'll wait to see what it means for her character and story going forward until I make judgment; having a little sister may create some nice stories. It was probably a little out-of-line for Ben and Liz to go behind her back like they did, considering they presumably don’t know about the situation or what kind of relationship Ali has with her father. The Bad – Nothing, really. Best Butler – I'm most intrigued by Joe's story and I perhaps most enjoyed Rena's character throughout the episode, but of course, the best butler of the episode was Josh, for that excellent twist regarding Brad's death. It's the part of the episode that will be the most memorable for me, and was very impressively done. I'm curious as to how his character will develop from here. Overall – I mostly enjoyed everything about this episode, and I'm happy with all the stories that have been set-up for the season. I'll admit, I didn’t find it the most exciting and it didn’t grab me throughout like a lot of episodes have, but there was also plenty to enjoy. Overall, I'm interested by Joe's mystery and was greatly impressed by the twist over Brad's death, so I think the episode accomplished exactly what it meant to. Well done, guys.